Yet another motion of no confidence vote delivered a loss for the Democratic Alliance after Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell was ousted by the ANC and other opposition political parties on Wednesday.
It is reported that 100 councillors voted in favour of the motion, while 93 voted against it after the African National Congress (ANC) brought this motion forward.
The ANC accused Campbell and the DA of failing to provide adequate service delivery in Ekurhuleni. ActionSA, which is the DA's biggest ally, said that this motion has effectively collapsed the multi-party coalition government in Ekurhuleni.
ActionSA leader Bongani Baloyi said the party shares its disappointment with the DA and the people of Ekurhuleni, who will suffer at the hands of the ANC.
"We share the disappointment of the residents of Ekurhuleni at the loss of a coalition government that was beginning to reveal positive changes.
“This loss is one that impacts service delivery and the fight against corruption and paves the way for a return of failed ANC governance of Ekurhuleni. For the first time, Ekurhuleni was taking steps to initiate independent power production, renewal of infrastructure was receiving record high levels of expenditure, and EMPD was producing strong results with the introduction of Operation Buya Mthetho.
“This was coupled with important work to combat corruption, and this is why the work of this coalition government became a threat," Baloyi said.
Baloyi said ActionSA had, in recent months, communicated its concerns over the stability of the multi-party government, adding that steps need to be taken to improve this aspect of coalitions.
The party said the same about the recent motion against the DA's Mpho Phalatse in the city of Johannesburg after she was ousted in a similar fashion. This week, Phalatse won her mayorship back through the courts.
On Tuesday, the Gauteng High Court ruled in her favour, declaring last month's motion against her invalid and unconstitutional. Baloyi also accused the DA of a lack of effort in coming up with solutions ahead of the vote.
"This position of ActionSA was criticised by the DA as trying to bring parties through the back door. Regrettably, today, these parties have now united in their opposition to our multi-party coalition government and ended the tenure of a government that was starting to produce positive changes.
“Over the past few weeks, when it was known that this motion of no confidence was looming, there was no concerted effort to reach out to parties to defeat these motions. Political insults have been traded in the place of what should have been a pragmatic approach to building majorities," Baloyi said.
ActionSA said lessons should be learnt quickly ahead of the national government elections in 2024 in order to prepare for multi-party governments far better than it has been the case with local government coalitions.
“As we approach the 2024 national and provincial elections, it will be imperative that these lessons of local government coalitions are learnt quickly and with humility.
“This, however, offers little solace to the people of Ekurhuleni today. ActionSA will now begin the work of conceiving our approach in coalition to effectively hold an incoming government to account in the strongest terms on behalf of the residents of Ekurhuleni," Baloyi added.